chocolate chip blondies

This past weekend Gerrit and I ventured to the bustling metropolis of Boerne, Texas to visit some of his extended family. It was a quiet weekend of relaxing and reading and sitting on the front porch in the almost cool mornings. It was nice to be without our computers. Although that part was an accident, as Gerrit, seeing that his neoprene sleeve was already in his bag, assumed he had his computer, forgetting that he had left it charging under the couch. On Saturday we went to a tiny water park in Bandera (the cowboy capital of the world, apparently) where we floated on the lazy river and repeatedly went down their one water slide (hey, we take what we can get). We also spent a great deal of time playing board games and discovered some fantastic new ones (Settlers of Cantan, anyone?).

Then to cap the weekend off we came back to Houston and went immediately to the movie theater to see Harry Potter, because we just couldn’t wait until Tuesday, our first free evening of the week.

I made these blondies to take on our visit. There’s really not much to say about them except that you can never go wrong with three cups of chocolate chips. They melt into the dough, causing these to be more chocolate than blondie, but really that is just fine with me. The original recipe is for fleur de sel chocolate chip blondies, but I skipped the fleur de sel part and just made the blondies with some salt already in them. The recipe also says to bake them for 30-35 minutes, but at about 25 minutes I noticed that mine were looking pretty done, although I’m sure this is because I used a glass pan. So just keep an eye on them.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugars and continue to beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. **
4. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure the first is fully incorporated before adding the second. Add vanilla, mixing well.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients, mixing just until dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
6. With mixer still on low speed add the chocolate chips, mixing until they are evenly distributed throughout dough.
7. Pour dough into greased pan, spreading it out evenly.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until blondies are golden brown on top and the center is set (not wobbly when the pan is moved). Allow them to cool for several minutes before cutting.

* I’m not sure how Anne Thornton cuts her blondies, but her recipe said it would make 48. I think they must be pretty measly little pieces though.

** Whenever I’ve creamed butter and sugar together in the past, I’ve never beat it longer than it takes for them to be combined. But now in two recipes I’ve made in the past week, both this and the chocolate cupcakes, the recipe says to beat the butter and sugar together for several minutes longer. Anne Thornton explains that this creates air pockets in the dough, helping to make everything lighter and more delicate, and I’m starting to learn that this is an important step.